Film noir is a genre in which the precise parameters are often difficult to discern, but which we can generally agree consists of a few key components that persist throughout, particularly when it comes to the earlier works that defined the genre and essentially laid its foundation. This has allowed many tributes and imitations, with an entire sub-genre of comedically-infused noir films emerging almost concurrently. These films consisted of similar themes – usually featuring an unscrupulous protagonist (often a would-be private investigator) that gets embroiled in a sinister plot that involves a femme fatale, shadowy villains and often a whistle-stop tour of some major metropolis that becomes the stage for the battle between good and evil – but tend to be far more eccentric, usually filtering these ideas through a darkly humorous lens. One such example is My Favorite Brunette, in which Elliot Nugent works with screenwriters Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose to craft the effortlessly funny story of a baby photographer who decides to give moonlighting as a private detective a chance, not realising the dangers that come with this profession – and its a lesson he learns very fast once he is approached by a mysterious woman, who immediately plunges him into a sinister conspiracy after seeking out his help to solve the mystery of her missing uncle, a case that involves many potentially malicious figures that our hero is hopelessly ill-equipped to handle. A wonderfully odd comedy with an abundance of heart and soul, and a never-ending supply of hilarious moments, My Favorite Brunette is a triumph, albeit one that has not been given the attention it deserves, something that has gradually begun to change as more viewers become aware of this film and its delightfully irreverent, complex worldview.

From its first moments, My Favorite Brunette establishes its intentions quite clearly – this is aiming to be a pastiche of the film noir genre, and like any good parody, it understands that the only way to effectively lampoon an entire genre is to attempt to replicate its tropes, being subversive without ever being mocking in a way that could come across as cheap or inconsequential. Nugent – who had his own flourishing career on both sides of the camera – clearly had enough knowledge and firsthand experience to decidedly capture the spirit of the genre that he was interested in exploring, and through collaborating with equally smart and interesting writers, he crafts quite a daring work that is built around paying tribute to the pulpy detective thrillers that had enthralled audiences for well over a decade by this point, making use of many very promising ideas to explore the elements that draw us towards these stories. Danger, mystery and intrigue are a terrific foundation on which to build any film, and when you add in generous layers of comedy, it only becomes more compelling. The themes are not particularly complex – as much as we think it is heading in one particular direction (such as exploring political corruption or the broken promises of the American Dream, or even making a statement on the death penalty, a topic that bookends the entire film), we find that Nugent is far more interested in intentionally misleading us, taking us on a roundabout journey that never has a particularly neat resolution, but rather points out the banality of existence and how nothing ever needs to make sense, a message that may not be entirely consistent, but has a lot of merit when taken in the context of this film.

The challenge with being viewed as more of a comedic personality than an actor is that there are sometimes challenges that come when selecting the best performance that represents their career. This is particularly true of actors like Bob Hope, who built his entire career around such a carefully curated character that extended into his own public persona; it’s difficult to take note of when he is actually delivering a stellar performance. I have previously gone on record by saying his performance in Sorrowful Jones is absolutely exquisite, and a welcome change of pace for an actor who often relied on his usual schtick (to his credit, he comes from a generation of performers who just need to find the right set of characteristics, and they would be set for life), since it prevented him from resting on his laurels for too long. My Favorite Brunette is also often touted as one of his more exceptional performances, and while it does rely on a lot of the same humour we have come to expect from him, he does carefully work to only emphasise certain elements of his well-known persona, leaving all the rest to the writers, who work with him to create a far more nuanced and balanced character. He’s joined by a terrific supporting cast – Dorothy Lamour walks a very narrow tightrope between sultry and wacky, playing the femme fatale with such extraordinary conviction, while Peter Lorre is a perfect villain, using his innate eccentricities to create quite a memorable adversary for the main character. Something that binds this film together and makes it so successful is that even at their most outrageously funny, the actors don’t lean into the humour – they never make it seem like they’re in on the joke, and mostly play their roles completely straight, which we know can elevate the humour and make the final product all the more captivating.

When it comes to a film like My Favorite Brunette, it isn’t always the story or exclusively the actors that define its overall identity, but also the execution. This can often be overlooked, since we tend to think that good writing and strong performances (especially from quite a star-studded cast) are more than sufficient to draw our attention. Mercifully, this is disproven by this film, which finds much of its merit in the approach it takes to bringing these ideas to life. This is primarily found in the tone – as mentioned previously, the film is clearly a parody, but is never interested in going for the cheap laughs, and instead attempts to be as close of an approximation to the original genre as it can get before losing its comedic charm, which proves to be oddly quite close, to the point where it comes across as intensely dramatic in many moments, and we begin to wonder whether it is going to have the bleak ending that we are supposedly led to believe it will have during its opening scenes, in which the protagonist provides a moment-by-moment account of the events that led to him being taken to the gas chamber. Shifting effortlessly between comedy and drama, and driven by a sense of extraordinary chaos that we can certainly appreciate based purely on the unique energy that exudes from each and every scene. It’s not particularly complex filmmaking, but every ounce of simplicity is heavily supported by some brilliant decision, proving that less certainly is more when dealing with ideas that cannot be simply contained in any conventional form, and instead require a more original approach, which is ultimately definitive of this delightful film.

My Favorite Brunette is a film that delivers exactly what it promises – there’s no room for ambiguity or mystery anywhere in this film, which proves to be a far more effective exercise in combining different genres than I think many would expect based on a cursory glance. The film is a fascinating attempt to parody the film noir genre by taking the main tenets and using them to form quite an intriguing mystery of its own, only differing in how it is defined primarily by its humour more than its dramatic material, but remaining consistent and effective all the same. It may be easy to write it off as yet another quirky vehicle for Hope and his mugging (which is decidedly an acquired taste, and not one that everyone will necessarily find charming – personally, it took me several years to find value in his style of acting), but it does show that he was willing to put in more work than usual, with the strong script and exceptional direction giving him ample opportunity to slightly move beyond his usual approach to playing these characters. Pairing him with some excellent actors who bring out the best in him (and bolster their own work in the process) proves to be a very effective approach, and ultimately allows My Favorite Brunette to be an unexpectedly delightful surprise, and a film that is more than just the sum of its parts, being engaging, enthralling and consistently entertaining from its first moment to the last.